It’s All Relative

Stress is an everyday thing. It cannot be avoided. It gives us the impulse to go further, but it can stall our enthusiasm too. And we are so scared of it we leave ourselves with no decent response to stressful situations. I went through a series of stressful events recently. And my first response was, you guessed it, I freaked out! For two days I did nothing but fed my anxiety and created a vicious circle that eventually squeezed every drop of energy out of me. It felt like that anyway. One of my evening runs provided me with the key to solving the stress dilemma. It was a lesson that my youngest son, who is almost four, taught me. Or rather the memory of how he dealt with his stress.
And here is what he did. A while ago we borrowed a picture book from the library. At first it looked like another funny silly book on green extraterrestrial creatures. We read it before bedtime and then I noticed his eyes growing big with fear. The green aliens frightened him. He wanted to jump out of bed and PJs or not, take the book back to the library that very second. We planned to do so in the morning. The next thing he did though, he hid under the covers for a couple of minutes, and then emerged with a smile. Victorious smile, I might add. “Mom, they are just people like us wearing green alien costumes, aren’t they?”. I was bewildered. “Yes, of course,” I said. It was just a matter of changing his perspective on it.
Yes, it all relative. I just have to remember that most things and situations are not as scary as they look at first sight. Once anxiety is gone, we can definitely find way to solve the problem that is causing the stress. If my then three-and-a-half could find the tools to deal with stress so elegantly, then so should I. And so should you for that matter. It’s all relative. It all comes down to looking at it from a different angle. And mostly remembering that most green aliens are but regular people wearing costumes…